A Chance
by kymm
Summary: Ten year old Harry Potter gets a chance to have a friend...(pre Hogwarts) R/R please.


****

A Chance 

By: Katrine Potter (Katrine) 

(Pre-Hogwarts) A girl named Saria Jones tries to be a friend to 10-year-old fifth grader Harry Potter. Takes place before, during, and after the escape of the Boa Constrictor in Book 1. If you don't remember what I'm talking about, look at Chapter 2 of Book 1. 

****

A/N: Before you guys get your flaming torches out, I know that it said in the books that at school, Harry had no friends!! But it never said that no one ever _tried_ to be his friend. Maybe it did…well, IT'S FICTION, so…don't get mad. : ) 

Saria Jones sat with her friends at the school lunch table. However, her head wasn't turned towards the conversation or her friends; she was looking at poor little Harry Potter, sitting all alone at a table. She felt sorry for the poor boy; he had no friends because of his cousin, Dudley, the school bullie. He warned everyone every day that if they even said 'hullo' to him in a friendly manner they'd be shoved in a trash can. Saria, not wanting to be shoved in a trash can, obeyed the 'rule'. 

Saria was a friendly person, so it hurt her to see him like this. Nobody else seemed to mind, they were going about the latest gossip as if there was nothing wrong. 

"And you know what Mrs. Rewaga said?" Asked her best friend, Rose Cotton. "She told him that he had to stay _after_ school to clean up the paint!" 

Saria, naturaly curious, turned back to the conversation. "Who are you talking about?" She asked. 

"Why, Dudley Dursley, of course! In my art class, he threw paint all over the walls. He tried to blame Harry Potter, but Ms. Rewaga saw him do it! So, he has to stay after school to clean up the dried paint, so it'll be harder to clean!" said Rose. 

"Good riddance." Saria replied. 

Kate Williams shrugged. "His parents'll probably get him out of it." 

"They always do." Agreed Lori Hill. 

"They spoil him rotten, and leave Harry Potter out to do the dirty work." Said Saria, who had begun again to feel horrible for him. 

Lowering her voice, Kate said, "I wonder why Dudley and his parents are so mean to him?" 

Rose sighed. "I feel bad for him too, but I'd rather not have a black eye and be shoved in a garbage can." 

"Mmm-hmm." Agreed Lori. 

"But…it isn't right!" said Saria, who was now feeling outraged. 

At that moment, the bell rang, and they had to be off to class. Saria didn't stop thinking about it all day. 

* * * *

When school was over at 3:00, Saria ran all the way to her house, 7 Privet Drive. Harry lived at #4. She didn't want to risk going over to his house to deliver her note. 

In Science she had written it. She thought it was a brilliant idea. It was almost an invatation: 

Harry, 

This is Saria Jones. I just want to tell you to meet me in the alley near your house that connects Privet Drive to Grenwick Drive. It's pretty dark there at night, and that's when I want you to meet me. How about this Saturady, at 9:00pm? Please write back: I swear this isn't Dudley trying to hurt you. 

-Saria 

Saria just hadn't got a chance to give it to him. As it was only Thursday, she could proabably slip it to him tommorow at some time without Dudley noticing. 

Because, after all, Saria didn't want to be shoved in a trash can. 

* * * * 

The next morning in Math, her first class with Harry, she slipped him the note. Fortanetly for her and him, Dudley wasn't in that class. He was in(or was supposed to be) History class. He was probably cutting class, or so Saria thought. 

Saria watched as Harry read the note, and how his expression changed from bored or sad, to cheerful. Saria smiled as she watched Harry find his pencil and scribble on a loose sheet of notebook paper. 

Harry crumpled the paper into a ball, and threw it under her desk. Making sure the teacher, Mr. Underhill, wasn't looking, she picked the paper off the floor. 

Unfolding (or unwrapping) it, she read: 

Dear Saria, 

I'd love to, but this Saturday is Dudley's 11th birthday. I think him and Piers Polkiss are going to the zoo with the Dursley's, so I'll be stuck with Mrs. Figg, the mad old lady who lives on Fredrika Avenue. They might not be back at 9:00. I think they'll be going to dinner and leaving me there until late. I'll try though. 

-Harry 

Saria smiled at the letter and shoved in her jean pocket. She thought of trying to get a few people to come along. Maybe Brett Winters would; he hated Dudley, as he shoved him in a dumpster last year. However, Dudley didn't get in trouble. Brett had gotten yelled at for playing in the dumpsters. 

Also maybe Ray Jelwa could be convinced to come. He used to be one of Dudley's hitmen, but then they got in a fight over Dennis Gredga, another of Dudley's buddies. It was all quite confusing, but the bottom line was that Ray hated Dudley and his gang, Dennis Gredga, Malcom Warner, Piers Polkiss, and Gordon James. 

She rememberedd yesterday's conversation at lunch with Rose, Lori, and Kate. They'd also want to come, if she knew them like she thought she did. 

Saria's thoughts were interrupted by Mr. Underhill saying, "And perhaps Ms. Jones could tell us the difference between a Numenator and Denomenator?" 

Saria's head shot up and she stammered, "Uh…I-I think that t-the numenator is on the bottom, and the denomenator is on top?" she guessed, hoping to God that she was right. 

But, unfortanetly, she wasn't. "If you had been listening, Ms. Jones, you would know that the denomenator is on the bottom, and the numenator is on top." 

"I-I forgot. Sir." She added for good measure. 

"Mr. Polkiss just told us the answer." He replied, and Piers smirked at her. 

"You'll be joining Mr. Potter for detention after school." 

"Why's Harry got detention?" she blurted. 

Mr. Underhill sighed. "If you had been listening, you'd know that he swore aloud. A rather nasty word, too." Saria glanced at Harry, who didn't return the glance. 

The bell rang 5 minutes later, and Saria couldn't have been happier. She wanted to ask Lori, Kate, and Rose about the arrangment. She also wanted to ask Harry what he said. But no, she couldn't talk to Harry nicely, or she'd be shoved in a trash can. 

Saria sat down next to Rose and immeadetly dug into her lunch, feeling rather hungry. She had to wait for Lori, who was buying her lunch at school, before she made her announcment. 

Rose sighed. "Oh, well. Why do I even bother to have my mum pack my lunch? I just get a lot of weird stuff! I mean, what is with this peanut butter sandwich? The peanut butter l;ooks more like…uh…well, I'm not sure what it looks like!" Kate and Saria laughed. 

"Am I missing something?" asked Lori, who sat down across from Saria and Rose. 

"Not much. Rose is just bashing her mother's lunch." Said Kate. 

Lori rolled her eyes. "Buy school lunch if you hate it so much." 

Rose looked at Lori's lunch tray (which had grey mush piled on it) and said, "No thank you. It doesn't look much better." 

Saria seized the oppernunity and said, "You know how yesterday we were talking about Harry Potter?" Everyone nodded. "Well, I have (or had) an idea on how to help him out, and we won't even be shoved into trash cans!" 

She explained all about the l;etters, the meeting, and everything to them. After she was done, Kate said, "Oh. BUtwhat are you going to do, sneak out? At 9:00 at night. My parents are still awake at that time." 

"So are mine." Said Lori and Rose in unison. 

Saria frowned. "Oh, I'm such an idoiot! I should've known that was way too early! I'll have to make another note!" Abandoning her lunch, Saria pulled out her pen and a piece of notebook paper. She wrote: 

Harry, 

I'm sorry, but is it possible that we could meet later? I mean, my mum and dad are still awake at 9:00. So, how about around 11:30? Will the Dursley's be asllep then? I also wanted to tell you that my friends Rose Cotton, Lori Hill, and Kate Williams are coming too. They want to be friends. I also might get Brett Winters and Ray Jelwa to come also. 

Your friend, Saria 

Pleased with the note she stuck in her pocket to give to him later. 

* * * * 

The bell rang and Saria headed to her next class: Language. Both Harry and Dudley would be there, so she might have a problem getting the note to Harry, as Dudley and his gang usually sat behing him and poked him in the back and neck. It was also her last class with him, and she had to be in detention (so did Harry, but the meanest teacher in the school, Mr. Jik, would be there) right after school, so she had to get it to him then. 

She sat in a desk right across from him. He smiled and Saria shot a small smile back. Just then Dudley, Piers, Dennis, Malcom, and Gordon headed in, and took their normal seats behind Harry. Saria sighed and pulled her language book out from under her desk. 

The bell rang and the Language teacher, Ms. Torres, stood up and said, "Welcome to another lovely Language class! Today we'll be studying on how to write tall tales! Mr. Potter, would you be a dear and go and get the Story Handbooks from the back shelf?" 

Harry got up and started to walk back there when Dudley screamed, "OWWWWW! Harry, why'd you do that?" 

"Mr. Potter?" asked Ms. Torres. 

"I didn't do anything to him!" he replied. 

Dudley sobbed and clutched his ankle. "H-he k-kicked my ankle!" he chocked. "Ms. Torres…m-make h-him a-apologize a-and then have l-lunch d-detentions a-all y-year!" Saria saw Dudley flash Harry an evil grin when the teacher wasn't looking. 

"Mr. Potter…I think I'll have to send you to the headmisstriss's office, that was totally uncalled for-." 

"He didn't do anything!" shouted Saria, who then stood up in anger. She didn't much care if she was stuffed in a dumpster or a trash can, she was so angry. "Dudley just was trying to get him in trouble! I saw everything! Harry never kicked him anbywhere!" 

"Ms. Jones, please calm down-." 

"I WON'T!" she shouted. 

Rose, who was also in class, said, "She's right. Harry never did anything." 

Ms. Torres frowned. She sighed. "Mr. Dursley, the most of the class goes against you. If he kicked you, let me see the ankle." 

Dudley said nothing. 

"Very well then. Harry, please go get the books. Mr. Dursley, please come foreword." She said. 

Dudley, still sulking, got out of his desk and walked up towards Torres's desk. Harry continued to go towards the back to get the books. 

Saria, seeing the perfect opportunity, brought the note out of her pocket and slipped it under Harry's notebook. No one saw. 

By that time Dudley had reached Torres's desk. "Mr. Dursley, please show me your agenda." Whenever they did something bad, they got a signiture in their agendas, books they had to carry around. That brought Saria to wonder why she had gotten detention, and not just an agenda mark. Well, Mr. Underhill was proabably in a bad mood. 

Harry passed out the books to everyone and sat down. He saw the note, and unfolded it. He read it, looked at Saria, and nodded. She smiled. 

Other than the fact that she had a detention, she was having a rather good day. 

* * * * 

At 3:00, Saria ran towards Mr. Jik's room, where she had detention. She found that Harry was alreay there, so took a seat next to him. 

There were very few people there; just Harry, Harriet Lonels, Mark Grendel, and her. 

Mr. Jik looked around the room at every minute to make sure everyone was doing work, and not talking. He glared suspiciously at everybody all the time, so Saria wasn't too worried when he looked at her. 

She sighed as she did her language homework; write a rough draft of a tall tale. She hadn't gotton very far when Mr. Jik interrupted her. "Ms. Jones. You are free to go." He didn't sound happy; he must have enjoyed torturing students. 

"Huh?" 

"I said that you are free to go. Mr. Underhill assigned you only 10 minutes of detention." He said crabbily. 

She shrugged and gathered her books. She walked out of the classroom, feeling happy. Soon Harry would have friends.

* * * * 

****

Saturday, 3:00pm, the Dursley's Car, at the zoo 

Harry climbed into the Dursley's car, feeling happy that the Dursley's hadn't blamed him for the escape of the Boa Constrictor. They normally blamed him for everything else. 

Dudley was telling Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon how it had nearly bitten his leg off, white Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst off all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you Harry?" 

Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go-cupboard-stay-no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large Brandy.**

Hours later Harry lay in his dark cupboard, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was, and he wouldn't know when it would be safe to eat, or to go meet Saria, Rose, Kate, Lori, Brett, and Ray. 

It was ironic, really. The only time in his life he would ever be able to make friends, and he had blown it. They'd all think that he had just skipped coming, and they'd think he was being a jerk and inconsiderate of all they had tried to do for him. 

Oh no. HE hadn't blown it: the Dursley's had blown it for him. He'd been living with them for 10 miserable years, and he was sick to death of them. He used to dream that he had unknown relations that would pick him up. 

But there were none, and now he would have no friends. 

He fell asleep, too tired to think anymore. 

****

Same time that Harry is locked in his cupboard, 11:15pm, The Alley 

Everyone sat in the alley, feeling exhausted. Harry Potter hadn't shown up. Why? Nobody knew. Well…

Brett had a theory. "He's inconsiderate. A jerk. No wonder Dudley and his gang hates him. 

Ray seemed to agree. "Yeah, Saria. You had a good idea. But I'm outa here." 

Ray and Brett ran out of the alley towards their houses. Lori yawned and said, "Saria, I'm going home. He obviously is sitting at his house laughing." 

Lori left with Kate. 

Now only Rose and Saria were left. "Saria…I'm sorry it didn't work out. We were probably wrong about Harry." 

Saria sighed. "I don't know. I'll find out on Monday." 

"All right then. I'll see you later." 

Saria walked to the end of the alley and looked up Privet Drive. Why? WHY didn't he come? Was he an 'inconsiderate jerk'? Maybe. 

Maybe he was. 

****

Monday morning, just before Math Class 

Saria stood in front of Mr. Underhill's classroom, waiting for Harry Potter. She had to find out why he didn't come. 

She peered around the corner for about 5 minutes, waiting for him. Finally she saw his familiar figure, all in baggy clothes, coming. 

"Harry Potter!" she said when he was close enough. "Where were you? Now everyone is mad! We could have all been in major trouble! _Where were you?_ " 

Harry looked at her. He looked depressed, Saria noticed. "It's the Dursley's. I had to go to the zoo with them, because Mrs. Figg broke her leg. The glass broke, and they blamed me, so I was sent to my cupboard, without supper, or a watch. I had no idea the time, because there were no windows. I'm…sorry." 

Saria felt horrible. "Oh, that's all right. We can try next weekend-." 

"I'm still grounded then." 

"Oh…how long are you grounded?" 

"Most probably until school is out." Harry said. 

"But that's in two months! It must be horrible to live with the Dursley's!" Saria replied, shocked. 

Harry sighed. "Yeah. I'll write you a letter during summer, and send it in secret. Hopefully they won't find out." 

"Oh, don't do that. If they find out, you'll be in awful trouble. We can write letters in school, and send them in secret." 

Harry grinned and replied, "I finally have a friend." 

Saria smiled, and then said, "Oh Harry? I was just wondering. In math on Friday, what did you say?"

"Oh _I_ didn't say anything. Dudley said uh…something really nasty to Mr. Underhill, and be said, 'Oh Mr. Underhill! Harry just said that nasty thing' and of course no one disagreed with him." 

Because after all, nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang. 

Except for Saria Jones. 

THE END   
  
Gahhhhh…that was weird. Consider it Alternate Reality, since when the Boa escaped, Harry didn't think those things. : ) 

Please review, or [drop me a line][1]. 

Good reviews and I'll write a sequel. 

Bad reviews and I'll cry. :P Just kidding. 

**= Taken from 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone', chapter 2. 

Harry Potter, Dudley, Vernon, and Petunia Dursley, Piers Polkiss, Malcom, Dennis, Gordon, and Privet Drive all belong to J.K. Rowling, but the plot and all other characters are © Katrine Potter, 2000. 

Hahahahaha…

****

   [1]: mailto:katrinepotter@angelfire.com



End file.
